Tiffany Smith
Propagate Love, 2020
Live performance and public event within the exhibition Home Movies at Paradice Palase on September 13. The show was on view from September 4-13, 2020.
Location: Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11221
The exhibition Home Movies by Tiffany Smith presented a collection of short videos that blend abstract, documentary, and performative video footage from tropical locales into vignettes constructed from nostalgic memories that interrogate the meaning of home. Presented within an environment that references both interior domestic space and the cultural practice of creating and screening family films in and around the home, the videos provide context for the definition of home as a place of origin, a place of residence, and a site of care, rest and resistance.
Upon entering the space, the sound of Miles Davis’ trumpet pierced the room, belting out the tune of “Blue in Green” - a piece of music that holds nostalgic significance for the artist and sets a calming tone for the viewer as they acclimate to the space. This track accompanied the video Oceans on Oceans which layers together found footage of ocean waves in the Bahamas and Miami and is positioned to offer space for seated meditation. Surrounding the space are projections of Hair Care (single channel video, 2020) and Bahama Blues (2 channel video, 2018).
Bahama Blues, focuses on the difference in experience when visiting Nassau, Bahamas as a tourist and as a local. Scenes captured while visiting the local public beach and ritualistically reconnecting with the ocean are paired with documentary footage of a first experience with hair braiding in downtown Nassau’s tourist market. The piece is scored with Junkanoo music assembled from user uploaded videos from a specific performance when in rare fashion, all of the Junkanoo bands that usually perform in competition, came together to play a funerary tribute to a Bahamian cultural icon.
Hair Care documents the artist giving her father an at home haircut in the backyard of his South Florida home during the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic when, under restriction, people have been called to rely on each other to administer care in new and ever emergent ways. Accompanying the footage is the Bahamian folk song “John B Sail” by Blind Blake (later adapted by The Beach Boys as “Sloop John B”) and a distorted repetition of the recognizable chorus “I feel so break up, I want to go home.”
Sunday 9/13: Performance
The exhibition culminated with Propagate Love, a performance and public event. Throughout the afternoon, Smith hosted a Zoom performance and conversation about plant care as an outlet for self care while propagating offspring from houseplants that was then distributed to the community during the closing reception.
Events Timeline:
1-2pm EST: Zoom performance by Tiffany Smith
2-3pm EST: Zoom conversation with
Tiffany Smith
4-6pm: in-person reception, masks required, RSVP encouraged
tiffanysmithphoto.com
paradicepalase.com/tiffanysmith-homemovies
Inquiries: eileen@neumeraki.com